Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. PREFACE ix
4. Introduction 1
5. 1. The Comic as a Literary Quality 10
6. 2. Description of the Comic as a General Feature in Literature 22
7. 3. Comic Ethos: The Classical View 49
8. 4. The Romantic Theory of the Comic 80
9. 5. The Modern Comic Ethos: Bergson's Laughter 111
10. 6. Modern Comic Ethos Continued: Freud 131
11. 7. Twentieth-Century Theorists: Mauron, Cornford, Frye 152
12. 8. Nietzschean Values in Comic Writing 174
13. 9. After Barthes: Death of the Comic? 204
14. 10. Conclusions and Continuing Issues 242
15. Selected Bibliography 255
16. Index of Names and Titles 263
17. Subject Index 266